SM council approves designations for bridge, trail

SAN MARCOS  A new bridge on Borden Road will be named after Reynold Baskum Borden, one of the original settlers in the San Marcos area.

A trail that runs along the bridge will be named after Amos D. Trussell, a former San Marcos City Council member and dairy operator who owned 222 acres in the Twin Oaks Valley north of the bridge.

The City Council made the designations in a unanimous vote at its meeting Tuesday.

The city announced in March that it was seeking suggestions for the naming of the $5.6 million bridge between Woodward Street and Twin Oaks Valley Road. Borden’s and Trussell’s names were unanimously selected by the community services commission during its April 17 meeting.

Vice Mayor Rebecca Jones said it was difficult to decide and said she wanted to find a way to honor both. She proposed that the bridge be named after Borden and the trail after Trussell.

“I feel like both of them had such significance in the city … I can’t really leave one of them out,” she said.

Borden’s name was submitted by Carolyn Read, who owns his original home, the oldest home still standing in the city. According to a letter written on behalf of the San Marcos Historical Society, the Borden family came to San Marcos in 1882, and Borden was the first European settler in the Richland area of the city. He owned more than 330 acres to grow grain, and he was also a bee keeper, blacksmith and harness maker. His son, John, was also known in the area as a farmer and surveyor and was active in civic and commercial enterprises in the early years of San Marcos.

Trussell’s name was submitted by Arie deJong. According to a city staff report Trussell was a former director and president of the San Marcos Chamber of Commerce, a charter member of the San Marcos Rotary Club, and served on the board of the San Marcos Fire Protection District, San Diego County Water District — now the Vallecitos Water District — and San Marcos Planning Commission. He was active in the San Marcos school unification process in 1976 and was involved in the city’s incorporation in 1962 and 1963.

A ribbon cutting for the bridge will happen in late May or early June.